Surmount
by vacant houses
Summary: One shot. Dark fic. After the defeat of her enemies, Karai comes to the unwelcome realization that without them, she is nothing. Unfortunately, the turtles are beyond anyone's help now.


TMNT = Not mine.

Dark fic. First time writing Karai seriously. It appears Redux hasn't left me alone quite yet.

* * *

**Surmount**

_They are screaming._

_The noise seems to stretch on forever, a deafening cacophony of shrieks of pain. It doesn't stop, doesn't end and she wishes she could block her ears until it is over. She doesn't. That would show weakness. Besides, she owes it to them to see this through._

_Then the pitch of their cries changes. It's not the sound of a sentient in pain now; this is the mindless bellow of an animal. A shudder tries to work its way through her body but she suppresses it. This…this is what they've always been. They've never been anything more than highly intelligent animals, right? It doesn't bother her to hear them like this. It doesn't bother her at all…_

_Yes. Yes, it does. _

_But this realisation comes too late to do them any good. Nothing can reverse what has been done._

_Why hadn't they known, why hadn't they realised this was a trap? They should have never come. She should have found a way to warn them. She is quick and she is clever. There were plenty of opportunities to set aside this conclusion._

_Hun is the first one to stir. "What do we do with them now?" he asks, voice filled with ecstatic glee. "Do we kill them?"_

_Her father steps forward and dismissively kicks one of the turtles, Donatello. "No. I will let them live as a warning to all that would defy me." _

_The Shredder turns and stares at her._

_"In fact…Karai, you will keep them and take care of them."_

x x x

She awakes to a blade under her throat.

Inwardly she is impressed. It is not easy to sneak into the headquarters of the Foot and to get into the chambers of the mistress without any notice takes even more skill. It is a sign of desperation, of being pushed to the absolute limits that her intruders have managed to make it this far.

"Where are _they_?" April O'Neil demands.

Karai doesn't hesitate; she cannot bring herself to keep this secret. She raises a hand and points to a table in the corner of her room.

x x x

_There is no honour in this. _

_This…this is an empty victory. The turtles cannot comprehend, cannot appreciate what has been done to them. The people who they once were would have despaired at this. But there had been no time for them to understand what had been done before they had lost all capacity for higher thought._

_She feels deprived of a chance to make them see what they truly are. It's gone now, forever and she'll never have it back. Never again. Instead she's been given this…_

_She doesn't know what she's been given. It's confusing, they were her enemies. She wanted them broken and crushed at her feet; she wanted them to acknowledge that they were **wrong**. That their concept of honour was wrong. _

_Instead she has been set this task. It feels like a warning. A message from her father. _

_Defy me and end up like them. Small and mindless and unaware of your own defeat._

_It's a message that has come too late. When she looks at the turtles now, she realizes that she's seeing herself, that this has been her for a very long time._

_She has already been conquered. _

x x x

"Casey?" April's grip and voice do not waver.

Karai can only marvel at her composure. Could she be so calm, if she was in the other woman's place? Would she look at herself in acceptance at the end of the day? It has been a long time since Karai has been proud of her choices and now she can only look at others and wonder if they've made the same mistakes.

The vigilante –and Karai is amazed at his presence, how had her men missed this buffoon- approaches the table. There is a large glass cage upon it. And inside…

Inside, there are four small, green turtles.

x x x

_Sometimes she wonders if they still exist in this new, un-mutated state. That if she somehow found the right mutagen and used it on them, they would turn back into themselves. _

_It is impossible, she knows this. It had taken Stockman and Chaplin years of work of deciphering their genetic code to devise a chemical to reverse their mutation. There is no way to turn them back, not without alerting her father to her intentions._

_Do they still live in their tiny bodies? With brains too small to support a sentient mind? Sometimes she thinks that she has caught a glimpse of them, of Michelangelo's exuberance, of Raphael's rashness, of Donatello's curiosity, or Leonardo's endless patience, in the actions of her four small charges. She stops and she stares at them, waiting for that small sign to emerge once again._

_She waits until she realises that it's just her imagination again._

_That they are gone forever._

_That these are just turtles, ones that had had a fascinating history but were now nothing more than simple animals. That their biggest concern is when the next meal comes. _

_They care nothing about the city and the people who would never accept them. They know nothing of the way of the ninja, of clan life, know nothing of honour. _

_They know nothing of her except that she is the hand that feeds them now._

_She feels alone and lost._

x x x

"That can't be them," Jones instantly denies.

O'Neil pushes the blade a little harder against Karai's throat until it just cuts into the skin. "Where are they, Karai? Where are they really?"

"Those are the turtles, Miss O'Neil," Karai replies and her voice remains steady. She has long ago come to peace with her fate in this. If she is to die tonight, then let it be.

"You are lying!"

"I am not. Stockman and Chaplin created a chemical that reversed their mutations. Those four turtles are your friends."

O'Neil's eyes darkened, in pain? In anger? Grief? Karai doesn't know.

"Then where's Splinter?"

Karai closes her eyes as she remembers that night.

"Dead."

x x x

_The rat's screams haunt her in a way the turtles do not. The nezumi had always been quiet, dignified; she always imagined that he would remain so even in his demise. _

_He is not._

_The sounds that he makes are that of a dying beast, confused and weak and pitiful. Unlike the turtles, his body does not withstand the reversal. It is killing him and with the loss of his mind, there is no composure. He is just an animal now, frightened of death and in pain. _

_She doesn't want to see this but she watches as he dies, shaking and shuddering as the change twists his body, breaking it._

_This cannot be happening._

_No one deserves…this._

x x x

"Are you going to kill me?" Karai asks calmly.

The two pause at that. She knows that they are not killers but she wonders if the truth of what has happened to the mutants will push them to that point.

Once she would have believed that this was the worst fate they could bring down on the turtles. She knows now it isn't. The turtles have been spared the pain of passing; they are not self-aware so they cannot despair. They cannot be broken. By doing this, they have pushed their enemies of out of their reach. Killing them won't make a difference to them now.

It is strange, that having her enemies shackled this way has humbled her. Opened her eyes to the chains she'd allowed her father to place around her. She looks behind herself now and sees a life of mistakes and honour that has been twisted until it cannot be recognized.

She is wrong.

She wants to admit this now but there is no one left to hear her. No one left that could ever understand. They were gone in a matter of moments by her own design and no matter how much she wants to, she cannot undo her actions.

She is wrong.

She awaits her judgement.

END

A/N: Written because I see too many turtle gets turned into xxx animal for whatever crazy reason and yet very few people ever think to turn them into ordinary turtles. Which I find a thousand times more interesting than a dog/cat/wolf/human/whatever.


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